On March 14, 2024, Alexey Borodin, Director General of the Regional Commonwealth in the Field of Communications, met with Maxim Shaskolsky, Chairman of the Interstate Council for Antimonopoly Policy and Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia.

The event was held within the framework of strengthening cooperation between the Interstate Council on Antimonopoly Policy (ICAP) and the Regional Commonwealth in the Field of Communications (RCC), which are bodies of sectoral cooperation in the CIS, within the framework of which great attention is paid to the regulation of communication and digital markets.

Thanks to the fruitful cooperation of the ICAP and the RCC in the framework of the study of the state of competition in the telecommunications market, significant work was done in the CIS in 2010 to reduce tariffs for international roaming services within the borders of the association.

Alexey Borodin noted that the FAS of Russia has high competencies in the field of regulation and development of competition in digital markets. In this regard, the Regional Commonwealth in the field of communications seeks to expand cooperation with the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia for the exchange of expertise and experience.

During the meeting, the head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia spoke about the work carried out by the service in the field of communications: monitoring the socially significant mobile market, issuing warnings to the "big four" mobile operators in order to cancel fees for distributing Internet traffic from mobile devices and their execution.

Maxim Shaskolsky stressed that in the issue of regulating digital markets, the Russian service seeks to combine state control and mechanisms of "soft" law.

Elena Zaeva, Head of the Communications and Information Technology Regulation Department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia, spoke about the development and adoption of Model Principles and Standards for the activities of participants in the digital markets of the CIS member states. The document is aimed at developing the institution of self-regulation and creating conditions for the formation of open, transparent, non-discriminatory conditions for doing business in the digital markets of the CIS countries. In addition, the document describes the risks and possible unfair practices of participants in digital markets, as well as contains principles and standards of good faith behavior of participants in digital markets in the CIS.

The event was also attended by Deputy Head of the FAS Russia Pyotr Ivanov, Head of the Department of International Economic Cooperation of the FAS Russia Lesya Davydova, as well as Deputy General Director of the RCC Natalia Zorya.

At the end of the meeting, the parties agreed to continue discussing approaches to regulating digital markets. The head of the FAS Russia emphasized that the issue of strengthening cooperation between the ICAP and the RCC will be considered at the next meeting of the ICAP on May 30 - 31, 2024.